5+ Ways Parents Can Help with Math

Over the holiday break, my kindergartner informed me that she wanted to find a new school. Concerned, I tried to figure out what she was thinking. Was she having a problem with friends? Had she gotten in trouble with her teacher? Was someone being mean to her?

It turns out she just wanted to find a school that doesn’t have math.

She tried to convince me that she already knew all of the math she needed to know. Ever.

So I handed her a pile of coins and asked her to count how much money was in the pile – knowing she wouldn’t be able to get very far. She got the point.

It can be easy to forget that math is more than addition and subtraction worksheets, school classes and memorized facts. So I’m trying to look for ways to show her how math is such an important part of our everyday lives: cooking and shopping, art and music and computers – it’s all math.

Here are some ways parents can help their kids connect and practice math in “real life.”

Have your child count down the time (weeks, days and/or hours) to a special day or holiday

Have your child measure ingredients for a recipe you are making

Encourage your child to track or graph scores or stats for a favorite sports team

Ask your child to count the change at the grocery store, or to estimate the total cost while you are shopping. Or, with older kids, to help track the family budget.

Explain what you’re doing whenever you use a measuring tape, a scale, or a ruler. Ask for your child’s help.

13 thoughts on “5+ Ways Parents Can Help with Math”

If I had never stumbled on to this site I would have to sit in class with my grandchild. We have never been taught these math applications. So how in the world would we be able to help them with their homework at home. What I was shown seems to be a far cry more simple along with quicker to solve, I’m all for challenging the mind but what’s with the reinventing of the wheel so t speak. A lot of problem solving and writing just to come up with the same answers as the conventional way we were taught. I’ll remain open minded but who developed these concepts especially for the children who may have also started out there first several years doing conventional math as well. Then suddenly be switched. Truly confused as to why.

I was just talking to my parents about this tonight! The methods often used now may seem overly-complicated, but I’ve seen in my own kids and their classmates how well the methods work, and when they get into more complicated equations and problem-solving, they already have an understanding of how to solve the problems. It’s different than how most of us were taught, but it works for so many kids.

I really do like this curriculum but the only downside is lack of practice. These skills are valid but my child needs extra practice to reinforce the skills he learned at school. It would be helpful to have extra practice sheets that I could download and print out for my son.